Category: | Review - Internet | Publish date: | 1/22/2013 |
Source: | mediablasphemy.com (United States) | ||
Synopsis: |
True North
After thirty three years of delivering solid punk rock albums it comes as more than a surprise that Bad Religion has hung up the guitars and broke out the dubstep beats. Alright that’s a lie. True North is a by the numbers Bad Religion record and that fact their trademark style remains exciting rather than tired is a testament to their quality.
True North sees the band return to the stripped down, no nonsense approach that they demonstrated so well on their early classics No Control and Suffer. There’s nothing fancy on display here, Bad Religion fire out fast, melodic, ballsy songs that you’ll be singing along to by the second chorus. The riffs are as strong as ever and Brett Gurewitz delivers some short but sweet solos to further whet the listener’s ears.
A strong chorus has always been at the core of any decent Bad Religion song and you can be sure that there are plenty on offer here (Land of Endless Greed, Nothing To Dismay) that will have you singing along and fist pumping as hard as ever.
The only problem with this album is there’s no time to take it all in. At just over half an hour in length the sixteen tracks on this album fly by, before you even have chance to take in the breathless ‘Land of Endless Greed’ Greg Graffin is shouting “Fuck You!”. It’s an album that takes multiple listens to fully appreciate, first time around it’s easy to miss the thrilling “Vanity” which at barely one minute long is over before you realise it’s begun.
With ‘True North’ Bad Religion have delivered one of their most solid efforts to date, it’s a turbo charged album filled with instant anthems. Whether the band will stick around to release another remains to see but after hearing this it’s clear that fans will be begging the Californian legends for a follow up. As inspiring as anything they have done before.
7.5 / 10
- Michael Glynn